El-Masri v. United States
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
479 F.3d 296 (4th Cir. 2007)
El-Masri (plaintiff) sued CIA officials (defendants) over his mistaken-identity abduction and five-month detention and interrogation abroad, and the CIA director invoked the state-secrets doctrine, submitting both an unclassified declaration explaining the privilege claim and a classified declaration detailing the specific protected information; after in camera review, the district court found El-Masri couldn't establish a prima facie case without the privileged evidence and granted the government's motion to dismiss.
Whether, pursuant to the state-secrets doctrine, a United States official or agency may prevent the disclosure of sensitive information in a judicial proceeding if there is a reasonable danger of exposing military matters that should not be divulged in the interest of national security.